The BSA is a state-run government institution, and there are over 200 contract staff nurses working, most of whom have worked there for several years.
The contract staff nurses of Delhi government's Baba Saheb Ambedkar (BSA) Hospital went on a strike on Monday demanding the payment of pending salaries, thus affecting patient care. The BSA is a state-run government institution, and there are over 200 contract staff nurses working, most of whom have worked there for several years. Their salary is not on par with the regular employees of BSA, and even maternity benefits are denied to them.
“We have not received last four month's salaries. We have families and you can imagine how difficult it gets when there is no money coming in. We, anyway, have reduced expectations of ever getting any bonus, but at least should get our hard-earned salary in time,” said Raj Narayan, a nursing staff, who has been working at the hospital since 2011 and confirms that the salary rarely comes on time.
While the strike was called off after seven hours at 3 PM, when the Medical Superintendent assured the nursing orderlies that the information on the salary disbursement will be shared Tuesday morning and they should not affect patient care till then.
The functioning of the hospital was affected by the strike by the contract staff nurses, with only minimal services being maintained. With the hospital authorities negotiating with the striking nurses, the permanent staff nurses were severely overburdened.
“We will wait until Tuesday morning and if we still do not get a satisfactory answer, we will go on an indefinite strike. We have been told that our supervisor does not have all the paperwork with him, why was this not an issue earlier?” added Narayan.
DNA tried to reach out to the Medical Superintendent, but he was unavailable for the comment. The 540-bedded hospital receives at least 3,000 patients in its Out-patient Department every day.
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